By Albatross
May 22 2006

Applications have closed, and presumably now senior people at the club are sifting through a pile of CVs as Hartlepool United seek a new manager. If past practice is anything to go by though Pools fans could be playing a waiting game for a while yet. With the exception of the Scott appointment, Pools under IOR have tended to follow a fairly standard process for any business - a call for applications, closing date, assessment of applications and then a round of interviews with leading candidates. And with the exception of Scott, this has resulted in a set of appointments that while unexpected at the time have generally worked out ok: Turner, Newell (who did get us promoted despite not exactly being much mourned by Poolies when he departed), and Cooper.

Speculation about candidates seems to lack a clear focus at the moment - there are names mentioned, but it's hard to see a firm favourite. Everyone has an opinion of course, but this is an area where fans opinions don't seem to count for too much with the club. Is that a bad thing? Well, given that many believed this time last year that Scott was worth a try permanently perhaps not! To be fair, just because a name is mentioned on the boards doesn't mean he's (a) interested or (b) available - and the club is unlikely to start revealing the names of the people that have applied for obvious reasons. One name that may be scrached off that list is Dennis Wise though - after being appointed boss of Swindon, he has as good as said that he'd applied for the Pools job.

What may need some clarification is the role that Chris Turner is to play at the club. When he arrived it was not as a club employee, but as Director of Sport on behalf of IOR - though he seemed to be increasingly involved on the sidelines as the relegation battle wore on. Whether Turner will stay in that role or want to become more hands-on remains to be seen - and in the English game, the system of having a Director of Football with a First Team Coach has very few successes to it's name. Someone has made decisions about who is to stay and who to go; the betting is that Turner has had some involvement there. There's some specualtion that Turner's long-time assistant Colin West could be in line for the job - which would raise suspicion that it would be CT havng the most influence on team affairs.

I don't expect an announcement this week, but it's possible that by the end of next we could know who the new man will be. Slipping another week might not be a disaster, but before long we'll be at the stage of those not being retained by their clubs officially becoming available and that could be the time when we want someone in permanently. Neale Cooper may have been appointed quite late in the summer and done well the following season - but the more time to get to know the club and the players the better in my opinion.

Meanwhile, the club have announced that season ticket prices will be frozen for next season. Whether it will prevent the numbers falling drastically from last season's all-time high remains to be seen.